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CONGO: AN IRISH AFFAIR

2011 U.S. Premier
Running Time: 90 min | B&W | Color І

July 1960 and the people of the Republic of Congo have just gained their independence from Belgium. The United Nations embarks on the biggest peacekeeping mission in its history with 20,000 soldiers from 30 countries.

By September 1961, the Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, has been murdered by the Katangese and the UN is determined to bring the breakaway province back to the Congo. The future of the organization is at stake, but things have gone dramatically and drastically wrong from the beginning. At the centre of the storm are the 155 soldiers of A Company, 35th Battalion of the Irish Army and their commander, Commandant Pat Quinlan, under siege from forces determined to rip the Congo and the UN apart; the fate of the UN is in their hands as the people they came to protect try to kill them. The eyes of the world are on Katanga, the fabulously wealthy breakaway province, controlled by white European colonists, mercenaries and giant mining companies. This is the story of how the Cold War spread its tentacles to Africa. This is a story of post-colonial intrigue, incompetence and murder.